Tariana Turia, has excelled herself in the rabid rhetoric and looney logic she employs in her latest ‘NZ Herald' article. It appears the multitude of problems besetting Maori are the result of governmental, departmental and institutional racism.

The fact that twice as many Maori children, under five years old, are referred to CYF she implies is the fault of the department and not an indication of poor parenting.

The fact that health centre research shows Maori suffer poorer health in the areas of obstetrics, heart, renal and mental health she claims are the result of institutional racism with no consideration of self-indulgent lifestyles that may result in these conditions. Which department is responsible for Maori committing crimes?

Her referral to practices in Great Britain have little relevance to New Zealand conditions. We do not have the large number and diversity of immigrants, a reason for the success of Brexit.

What other country would require trainee nurses to study the protocols and absorb the customs of a single ethnic group exclusively as was a requirement in NZ, where many trainees nurses also had to spend a night sleeping on a marae? Were not hospital visiting regulations relaxed to suit Maori cultural

Ms Turia, you would be better employed in encouraging the controllers of the $40 billion Treaty Settlement ‘nest-egg' to spend some of it in solving Maori problems.

None of the self-styled tangata whenua is more than 50 per cent Maori. We are all a mixture of ethnicities and so should regard ourselves as New Zealanders, share the ‘nation's cake' evenly and dispense with egregious claims.

B Johnson, Omokoroa.